Blessings, Peta xo

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Here is a vlog of our family singing at Luke’s work place – a nursing home. Unfortunately I didn’t get the children singing on film because our camera ran out of space before they came on! Maybe next time! Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel while you are on YouTube.

Thanks for your support,

Blessings, Peta.

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Last Friday we were booked in to play at a small nursing home around 45 minutes drive from our house. This time the children sang two songs for the residents! We were given one hour for the performance and Luke sang the bulk of the songs and played his guitar in front of an audience of around 15 residents. It was a special day and being Good Friday all our songs were focused on Jesus and his death and glorious resurrection!

Our day didn’t get off to a good start. A few of the children didn’t sleep well and were in a very grumpy mood! We tried to do a practice in the morning but the moods continued and at that moment Luke and I were feeling pretty stressed!

Things did come together though. Praise the Lord! We had a quiet early lunch of toasted wraps and tuna and beans to give us the energy to give our best. The drive up was very quiet! We listened to a new Hamilton family theatrical CD about ‘Pleasure Island’ and how the sailors made their escape. It was also quiet because when I’m nervous I go silent and hold it all internally. I have no idea why I was so nervous, we were only singing in front of 15 smiling elderly people who were so pleased just to see a friendly face and I’m sure, couldn’t care if we were any good or not. Perhaps because it’s been several years since I stood up in front of a group of people or perhaps I was nervous because the morning practice was not so crash hot!

Once we were there the set up went quickly and smoothly. I set up our ‘camp’ in the back of the room with pencils, note books, stickers, crackers, raisins and activity sheets and all the stuff.

Our ‘camp’ set up in the back of the room.

Setting up. Willow’s looking at something?

Sound checks

On arrival – lots of gear to bring in and people to unload!

I didn’t get any good footage of the children’s performance because I had no one to film for me and didn’t get time to set up the camera properly – maybe next time.

Luke opened with the songs ‘Mediator’ by Ghost Ship and ‘Grace Alone.’ When it was time for myself and the children to come up the front Holly (3) was busy colouring in and didn’t want to come! She’s eventually went up the front and sat on the floor and in front of everyone yelled…

“I’m NOT singing!!”

A chorus of laughter echoed throughout the room! Of course all the residents thought she was adorable and it was the funniest thing ever. So – on with the show we sang the songs anyway with Holly sitting on the floor colouring. Oh well. She is only three so I was surprised if I could even get her to sing or even stand in a line.

After the show we stayed and had afternoon tea with the residents. This is a great learning time for the children. I was very proud of the way a few of my children spoke to the residents and answered the elderly residents questions. I had a lovely chat to a few of the people and listened to a few very sad stories. One lady’s story really touched me. She is ninety six years old and was put into the home because she was sick but is better now and all she wants is to go home to her lovely country cottage. She says she doesn’t get to go out much and tears rolled down her cheeks as she told me her story. It really got to me. I couldn’t imagine the sorrow of staying in a hospital like place…forever. If I were her I know for sure I would want to be in my home surrounded by people I love with a lovely garden and my own freedom and dignity intact.

They were so grateful for us for coming and brightening their Good Friday in the facility and loved seeing the young children. It really brought so much joy to their day and it made all worth it. I’m really glad we went. We sing all Christian songs. Hymns, praise and worship songs as well as contemporary Christian songs. We are spreading the gospel through music and bringing Christ’s light into an other wise dark, sad place.

For those that do not know, Luke has worked as an aged carer for eight years and so, is used to the ins and outs of nursing homes. One day his workplace found out he sang and played guitar and asked if he would play for the residents. Luke happily agreed, did a little show for them and they loved it. And so our ministry began. We now have been to many different nursing homes throughout South Australia. From Paradise to Murray Bridge. We are working slowly towards to children and myself singing and playing too. The children and I have joined Luke up the front for 1-2 songs of the last two shows.

It is our dream and vision to bring our nursing home ministry to the rest of Australia. We are saving for a caravan and plan on traveling around Australia visiting the elderly. We will be visiting churches too.

If you would like to support our family ministry there are a few ways to help out and help get us on the road sooner.

You can purchase my new Ebook ‘Yes You Can Lose Your Pregnancy Weight’ HERE

You can spread the word about Luke’s graphic design business Breathe In Designs. Have your website, business cards and logos done by Luke. He does each job very uniquely with detailed design flair. All his customers and well looked after and are very happy with his work, he is a very talented designer and works on his jobs right away as he enjoys his work so much. If you have a YouTube channel he also designs thumbnails and video editing too. His website is HERE

Thank You for supporting our family’s ministry. It really means a lot to us. Everything for our ministry is paid for out of our own pocket so any amount of donation helps to keep us going and will help us to improve our equipment and enable us to purchase our long awaited caravan.

Enjoy this vlog of our day and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel too.

Blessings, Peta.

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Last week I took a long drive to visit my parents who live out on a farm. They are retired now and spend a lot of time caring for a fruit orchid and vege garden. I love my trips down to see them, I often take one of the children with me and they have a special time with their grandparents.

I never go home with an empty car boot. So I thought I would share with you what they gave me this time.

Watch the fun video below to see what we got from the farm this time! Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already so you can see these videos when they very first come out.

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If you’ve ever wanted to see a glimpse of what it’s like for us to get our family of seven ready for church then watch this vlog! Lots of hair to brush but what a blessing it is to now have three precious daughters!

We were surprised with 4 free tickets to a play cafe and had a great time there after church.

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I hope you are enjoying our new YouTube channel! After blogging for five years now, it’s been fun creating something a little different. (Originally I blogged at The Heart Of Our Home. )

You can click back on my old website if you would like to read some old posts, though, unfortunately I removed many articles when I was creating this website because I was going to put them all on here but it never happened.

Anyhow,

Click on the video below to watch a day in the life of us!

Blessings, Peta xo

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Hi all my lovely readers. Wow it’s been a busy couple of months for me. End of school year craziness, Christmas, and 6 weeks of summer school holidays. I don’t actually like business. I know many who thrive off it. My personality type screams for peace, quiet and slow. Otherwise my head gets cluttered and I have a tendency to get overwhelmed, brain fog and shut down a little. However I am slowly learning how to cope when life gets busy – I just keep rolling and don’t give into the stress and hope that a quieter time is around the corner when I can think…and write. Daily rituals that I have embedded into my life in recent years have helped me to cope better with stress too such as cups of tea, walking in nature, talking regularly and deeply with my husband, lists, daily prayer and journaling.

We got back from a lovely holiday 6 days ago. We were very blessed to have the opportunity to stay in my uncle and auntie’s holiday house which happens to be right at the most popular sea side location in the city! Luke and I vlogged one day of our holiday where we caught the tram which goes from the coast all the way into the city. We had a great family day out while we walked to the museum, mall and a guitar shop. Luke edits and does all the graphic design for our Youtube channel, he is very talented in this area!

I hope you enjoy! Blessings, Peta xo

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This year has been loaded with good things and also set backs. At the beginning of this year, instead of writing new years resolutions, I wrote a page of prayers that were on my heart. I cried out my heart to the Lord about these things daily all year long. I am deeply joy-filled to be sharing with you that many of those prayers have been answered.

I asked for someone to help me out with cleaning the house and baby-sitting as I could never seem to catch up on my workload at home and it was getting me down. – The Lord sent a lovely young Christian, home-schooled lady to come weekly and she has helped me clean the house from top to bottom. I feel so encouraged by this and she as become a great friend to me.

I asked for a large kitchen table particularly one painted white with a wooden stained top. And a dishwasher. – The Lord sent to us a local couple who custom built the exact table I was wanting that I saw at Harvey Norman for $3500. We paid only $450 for ours.

Our lease was not renewed at our rental house because the landlord wanted to renovate, which meant we had to move. Suddenly we were homeless. The Lord led us swiftly to a house only a few streets away. We were privileged to be shown through the house by the agent before it was even advertised. The new house has a dining area for our new kitchen table AND we were able to have a dishwasher installed in the laundry (only a few steps away from the kitchen).

I asked for wisdom and insight in dealing with my eldest sons constant aggressive behavior and mood swings. He was upsetting everyone in the house. We tried everything we could think of and were at our whits end (disciplines, spanking, time out, loss of privileges, earlier bed time, long talks, reward systems for good behaviour, more one on one time with him). I cried many tears over this. I was lead to discover he may have ODD (Oppositional Deficiency Disorder) And was reminded of an allergy test he had as a toddler which revealed he is allergic to wheat. I put him on a gluten and sugar free diet and within days he was back to his calm, happy self. The transformation in him has been amazing! I wish I had done this years ago. I might write a whole detailed blog post about this in the future.

I asked the Lord for a holiday. We had to spend our money shifting house and a holiday this year was looking like it wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t stop thinking about my Auntie and Uncles holiday house by the beach. I didn’t even know if they still had it or if someone was now renting it. I asked anyway – and they said yes! We can stay there! We are now getting ready next month to have a relaxing time away by the beach.

I asked for my mums healing for a condition she was suffering with. She told me last week that she feels the best she’s felt in years right now.

I always pray for the Lord to guide and lead me every day of my life in every area. I am completely surrendered to him and his will for my life. I have seen him provide for our family in amazing ways this year. He knows what I need and I have never been lacking anything. My life may not be fancy in any way – but it is certainly not lacking.

Thanks to everyone who supported my blog this year. Whether you liked a post on facebook or left a comment or just read a few articles. I really appreciate your feedback and every little bit counts and is noticed. I hope you are enjoying my new YouTube channel as well. Click here to check it out.

I’m excited for 2018 as I will be releasing my very first e-book. It is called ‘Yes You Can Lose Your Pregnancy Weight.’ And I pray it is a huge encouragement to many people. My goal for this blog from the very beginning when I started blogging back in 2012 is to encourage people, especially mothers, as they press on with the challenging and deeply rewarding task of parenting. I don’t make any money at all from blogging. I do it because I love it and I feel like I can help others with words of encouragement. However it does cost us over $100 a year to keep this sight online and by purchasing my e-book next year (hopefully in January) you will be supporting our family and the continuation of this blog.